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New Poll Finds 8 of 10 Broadcast-Only Households Have Taken Steps to Prepare for Digital TV SwitchFebruary 5, 2009WASHINGTON, DC — According to a new poll released today by the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), more than eight out of 10 American households that will be most impacted by the impending switchover to digital television (DTV) have taken action to ready their homes.

A national telephone survey of 2,650 households conducted January 2-6 found that 82 percent of over-the-air television households have taken steps to prepare for the transition by learning more about their options in getting DTV, applying for a converter box coupon or completing their upgrade to DTV.

Among over-the-air households who are currently receiving digital signals, 76 percent reported an improvement in the quality of their television reception.

Awareness of the DTV transition nationally remains sky high with 97 percent of all households either aware that TV is switching to digital, knowledgeable that the transition will impact over-the-air signals or able to previously identify the correct transition date. The margin of sampling error is +/- 2 percent.

"These findings make clear that there is universal awareness of the DTV transition, with most Americans having gotten the message, understanding what they need to do and taking steps to ensure their homes are ready," Seth Geiger, president of SmithGeiger LLC, which conducted the poll.

NAB commissioned the survey as part of its massive DTV education campaign valued at more than $1 billion to ensure that no consumer loses access to free broadcast television due to a lack of information about the transition. "We are pleased to see that broadcasters' wide-reaching education efforts have penetrated beyond general awareness and compelled Americans to act," said Jonathan Collegio, NAB vice president for the DTV transition.

Federal law requires all full-power television stations to switch to all-digital broadcasting by June 12, 2009. Consumers who receive free over-the-air signals on analog TV sets must upgrade to DTV with a converter box, digital TV set or pay TV subscription.

Actually, that doesn't sound too good. That means that 18% of OTA households are unprepared. And since it includes "learning about options" and "applying for a converter box coupon" as preparedness steps, that means that there may be lots of households in the remaining 82% who are not able to receive digital television, because they have not received coupons or have not purchased converter boxes or digital sets.

The only interesting part of the survey is that 97% of OTA households are aware of the digital conversion. Delaying conversion to June is unlikely to increase awareness rates, nor would it normally increase action based on awareness. The one area where the delay would increase action is if OTA households were unable to get coupons, or unable to get converter boxes. But correcting that requires that funding be provided for coupons to those who have not received them, and funding be provided for replacing coupons that expired because the consumer was unable to use the coupons.

This really gets down to the fact that the Coupon program needs to be fixed.

Actually, that doesn't sound too good. That means that 18% of OTA households are unprepared. And since it includes "learning about options" and "applying for a converter box coupon" as preparedness steps, that means that there may be lots of households in the remaining 82% who are not able to receive digital television, because they have not received coupons or have not purchased converter boxes or digital sets.

The only interesting part of the survey is that 97% of OTA households are aware of the digital conversion. Delaying conversion to June is unlikely to increase awareness rates, nor would it normally increase action based on awareness. The one area where the delay would increase action is if OTA households were unable to get coupons, or unable to get converter boxes. But correcting that requires that funding be provided for coupons to those who have not received them, and funding be provided for replacing coupons that expired because the consumer was unable to use the coupons.

This really gets down to the fact that the Coupon program needs to be fixed.

If that 18% wanted to get ready, I am sure that a good number of them could afford a converter box. But they would rather complain about not being able to get a coupon. I have no sympathy for those people. I believe many coupons expired because many people did not need them in the first place.

Actually, that doesn't sound too good. That means that 18% of OTA households are unprepared. And since it includes "learning about options" and "applying for a converter box coupon" as preparedness steps, that means that there may be lots of households in the remaining 82% who are not able to receive digital television, because they have not received coupons or have not purchased converter boxes or digital sets.

The only interesting part of the survey is that 97% of OTA households are aware of the digital conversion. Delaying conversion to June is unlikely to increase awareness rates, nor would it normally increase action based on awareness. The one area where the delay would increase action is if OTA households were unable to get coupons, or unable to get converter boxes. But correcting that requires that funding be provided for coupons to those who have not received them, and funding be provided for replacing coupons that expired because the consumer was unable to use the coupons.

This really gets down to the fact that the Coupon program needs to be fixed.

Actually, no. This really comes down to there are certain people who cannot comprehend simple concepts and will not understand until the day their TV quits working.

If it's only 18% of the 15% of the country that rely soley on OTA programming, that comes to roughly 3% of the country that are not ready. Not really a big deal IMO and nothing to further delay the transition.

Sam & Pepster, my comment regarding fixing the coupon program was in relation to the possibility I described that some people may have been unable to get or use the coupons.

But as I noted, since awareness is at 97%, delay will not increase awareness. And if there was nothing stopping those people from taking action to be ready for the transistion, then delay will not increase the amount of action taken by those not ready.